June 2020: Unity, Justice, and Forgiveness
/پشت قوی شد پشت قوی شد اختر دولت عدل و عنایت
“Spine became strong, Spine became strong because of two lucky stars; justice and forgiveness!”
~Rumi
Ghazal # 1269
Reflection on the Quote:
A message from Dr. Fariba Enteshari, Founder & Executive Director:
It is striking that 800 years ago Rumi had to repeat twice that the spine of society became strong because two lucky stars were aligned— justice in collaboration with forgiveness! And the word he chose for forgiveness does not only mean to forgive in order restore justice! His choice of the word, عنایت “Anajat” means also giving care, reaching out to do good, being generous, and showing love and kindness.
Echoing his wisdom throughout centuries, he demands our attention be on restoring justice through kind actions. Rumi glorifies this way of living and calls it “the star of all reigns.” What makes his verse more important to me is that he started his verse with ‘spine became strong” which is past present times two!
Somehow he hopes that by mentioning this part twice, we won’t forget that he had witnessed that acts of kindness gave a strong backbone to restored justice.
We live in a time in which we know the result of our failures.
Coronavirus is demonstrating loudly every misstep in our system!
Our mistakes have accumulated and fruits of our action have become a monstrous burden. We are stressed because of the results of every bad decision we made in the past.
It is time to reflect on past ways of living and listen! Remember Rumi’s words:
این جهان کوه هست و فعل تو ندا
“ This Universe is the mountain and the actions are the echo!”
Mathnawi I, 215
I cannot repeat this verse of Rumi enough. To build a better world, we need to learn from our past mistakes.
Our unity and the seeds of our action are too important to forget. What we need is a U turn, sharp and fast. Or we can choose to wait to harvest the results of our past actions without doing anything and see what happens.
-Dr. Fariba Enteshari